


you came calling (and i'm all in)

by empathieves



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mollymauk Tealeaf Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 11:49:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16786393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empathieves/pseuds/empathieves
Summary: Caleb finds a scroll with a very powerful spell on it. Jester brings back a dear friend who died far too soon.(Or, Caleb Widogast learns how to not have regrets)





	you came calling (and i'm all in)

**Author's Note:**

> Ah yes, my specialty, emotional introspection. Enjoy!

After Jester had cast the spell - True Resurrection, scrawled on a vellum scroll that Caleb had found in a dusty library on a long abandoned island - there had been a breathless moment where all of them had gone still. Caleb had waited, having felt the magic gathering around Jester as she cast, and then it had snapped - like a bowstring being released, a relief from the pressure that had built up on his skin. He knew as soon as he felt the snap that the spell had worked. 

He shut his eyes for a moment, and there was a rush of noise in his ears as the rest of the party reacted. He took a breath in - in, out, in, out. There was a pounding at his temples. The magnitude of it was only just hitting him, and he felt on the edge of something vast and incomprehensible. He had felt things for Molly, things that he had tried very hard not to look closely at in the light of day, and to have him back with them - to have him back, whole, and not have to miss him everyday like he had been doing for the past months - was almost too much to bear. 

He opened his eyes. He saw purple, so much purple - too much, actually, and why did Molly not have any clothes? He didn’t feel capable of speech, but he could do something - something to communicate that he was glad the spell had worked. He stood, swung his coat off, and stepped forward to wrap it around Molly’s shoulders. His hands were shaking. He could feel his eyes stinging, like there was smoke in them. Molly reached up, touched Caleb’s hand where it was resting on the shoulder of the coat.

“I’m okay, Caleb. I’m okay.”

\---

Later, after the inevitable revelry that followed their success and after they had regaled Molly with tales of what had happened since he had - well, while he’d been gone, they had gone to their beds on their little ship. Caleb had remained, back in his coat now that someone had found clothes for Molly to wear - even if they weren’t nearly as ostentatious as they should be. He felt wrung out, tired beyond imagination. The emotional toll of the evening was heavier than he had expected - he felt a confusing mix of overwhelming joy and a revival of his grief, mingled with soft touches of the infatuation with Molly he had been nursing before he had died.

He leant on the railing and watched the ocean, lost in his own thoughts. He so rarely got second chances. Would it be worth it, to say something to Molly? To ask, to offer. To be vulnerable. Molly is a good person, he knows that this is true, and he doesn’t think that he would be cruel to Caleb even if his regard is not returned. He chewed at his bottom lip. There’s just - would he even deserve that kind of reciprocation? He knew that he was getting ahead of himself, that there was every possibility that Molly thought of him as just a friend, or perhaps not even that, but his thoughts were unkind as they always were and he could not help but think that he would be unworthy of any kind of care.

“It’s late. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

He tensed before he could help himself, before registering that it was Molly’s voice. He was unused to it still, always thinking first of ghosts and undead before grasping that a miracle had happened instead. 

“Probably,” he responded, his voice dry.

“Can’t sleep?” Molly asked, coming up to stand beside him and leaning on the railing himself. The tiefling watched the ocean below, seemingly fascinated.

“Too many thoughts to sleep just yet. Are you having trouble sleeping?”

Molly looked down at his hands. “I think I’ve slept enough for now, don’t you?”

Caleb huffed.

“I notice that’s not an answer.”

“Of course you did,” Molly sighed, and turned toward him. “I don’t remember being dead, you know. I was dying, and then I was here. You’re all so different now.”

Caleb swallowed. There was a lump in his throat.

“We grieved for you. It changed all of us, in some way.”

Molly watched him, his eyes gleaming in the dim light.

“How did it change you?” There was a playfulness to Molly’s tone, but his face was serious. His tail whipped back and forth behind him.

“I...realised that I don’t want to have any regrets. I have things I want to do, but if they don’t come to pass, I don’t want to have lived my life waiting for them. I want to have things again, even if I might lose them. Even if I must.”

He swayed a little after he said it, almost dizzy with voicing it. He has been thinking of it for a while, but he hasn’t said it out loud. Hearing it gives it a weight he didn’t want to provide it, not yet.

“Was I one of your regrets, Caleb?” Molly’s voice had softened now, and so had his face. He looked almost tender, like he was watching a sunset, and Caleb’s hands began to shake again.

“Yes. Of course you were.”

When Molly kissed him, his sharp teeth tucked away, it was closed mouthed and almost chaste. It was both surprising and utterly unsurprising, expected and yet not. Caleb felt his hands come up to touch Molly’s face almost unconsciously and the warmth he found there was so reassuring he wanted to weep.

“Come to bed. Sleep. I promise you won’t regret me.”

Molly took his hand and led him to bed, and Caleb slept soundly for the first time in years.


End file.
